U.S. federal prosecutors are building a case against the WikiLeaks founder. But how will they get him? Glad you asked.

According to the New York Times, the feds are investigating if and how Julian Assange helped Private Bradley Manning extract documents from government computers. If Assange did, in fact, encourage or assist the soldier, he may get nailed for collusion.

What’s most interesting is that the state seems to be focusing on Assange’s role acquiring, rather than disseminating, the documents. This makes sense. If prosecutors focused on the dissemination of classified material, media organizations that published the documents would, in theory, be equally complicit.

“I suspect there is a real desire on the part of the government to avoid pursuing the publication aspect if it can pursue the leak aspect,” Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia law professor told the Times.“It would be so much neater and raise fewer constitutional issues.”